Fifty-two people, mostly women and children, were killed when a passenger train collided with a tractor carrying people back from a wedding in central India, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said on Friday.  

The crash occurred late on Thursday at an unmanned railway crossing about 22 km from the city of Nagpur, railway authorities said.

The dead included 30 women and 17 children, PTI said, adding that the tractor was carrying 65 to 70 villagers at the time of the accident.

A railway spokesman said on Thursday that 19 people traveling in a trailer attached to the tractor had died on the spot and six more died in hospital later.

No damage was reported to the train, which was traveling from Ramtek to Nagpur, a city more than 850 km east of Bombay, India's commercial hub.

The tractor got entangled in the train's engine and rescue workers had to struggle to remove many bodies, PTI said.

Some 300 accidents occur every year on Indian railways, which operate nearly 14,000 trains and carry more than 13 million passengers every day.

Collisions between trains and vehicles at crossings occur frequently as there are thousands that do not have gates and are not manned by guards.

The rail system, saddled with huge losses because of rock-bottom fares and a massive work force, has little money to invest in improving safety and infrastructure.

(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies, February 4, 2005)